Constance
by planet p
Summary: Who is Constance, and what connection does she have to Ethan? But, most importantly, is she real, or just another manipulation in a long line?


**Constance** by planet p

**Disclaimer** I don't own _the Pretender_ or any of its characters.

**Author's Note** I guess this can be reasonably construed as AU.

* * *

_This one'__s for Ethan,_

* * *

There was something about the woman that made Ethan watch her, made him want to watch her. She was more boyish than anything. On first glance, she was nobody. On second glance, she had big eyes, big blue eyes, and what once might have been beautiful long lashes. She didn't have bad attributes either, and Ethan could fairly see that they more than made up for her lack of unfathomable beauty. Something inside him rebelled at the thought. No, in her own way, she was more than beautiful, because she was human, and Ethan knew that in a way he knew very little things. Oh yes, she was very human.

He started to make a list, the important things first. White female, blue eyes, brown hair. Her age was a little harder to guess at. He would have estimated anywhere between early 30s to late 40s to be on the safe side.

Ethan was curious. Of course he would be. He dreamt about her every night. He didn't know that that was normal. To dream about those things, to want to watch as they did those things to her.

It was her facial structure, he supposed, and her stature, not a girl's stature. Her bones brought to mind a bear. Not a big bear, Ethan decided, just the analogy, well built. He might have said her stocky; before, he might have.

It was always her eyes that alarmed him. She had big eyes, almost too big, and they were blue, and her pupils so large.

She didn't have a small mouth, it was a big mouth, or a medium mouth, and slack lips, top and bottom lips about the same. He had never heard her speak, but he imagined that her voice would be deeper than higher, a little scratchy maybe.

She had scruffy dark hair. He liked her hair, it reminded him of what he had to compare with his mother's hair. He supposed that that should unsettle him somehow, that the whole damn thing should unsettle him somehow, but strangely he could never look away. Of course, when he woke, it did unsettle him; but never then, never when he slept, and dreamt those people doing those things.

* * *

"What's her name?" Jarod asked, mistaking Ethan's annoyance.

"I don't know," Ethan said.

Jarod was driving. He smiled.

Ethan watched the road through the glass as though determined about something. It made him sick, the whole idea, his horrible fascination. She had a tattoo, he thought abruptly, his head hurting. Why was he dreaming these things? Why her? On her right foot, his mind decided for him, a tattoo of… a sort of pattern he supposed. Ethan frowned.

* * *

Jarod glanced down at the paper tray mat Ethan had pushed across the table and frowned.

"Can you find it?" Ethan asked coldly. "It's a tattoo," he elaborated.

Jarod frowned. He was wrong, it wasn't cold – Ethan's voice – it was something else. He had thought it deliberate coldness. His mind snapped to. It was determination. "Are you okay?"

"Can you do it or can't you?" Ethan said.

"Why do you-"

"There is a woman-"

Jarod cut in. "The one with no name. Right."

"No!" Ethan said. "Not right! I have these dreams about her! Do you know what I dream about when I dream about her?"

"Ethan," Jarod said, "it's o-"

"It's not okay!" came Ethan's loud reply.

Jarod watched Ethan for a moment, then dropped his gaze to the sketch. "I don't know," he said finally.

Ethan laughed.

Jarod looked up. It wasn't a normal sort of laugh. It was a sort of laugh that said the person who was being laughed at was cheap. Cheap bastard, the laugh accused. "What's going on with you?" Jarod exploded.

Ethan looked at him. He had stopped laughing a while ago. What, his expression said.

"You have these dreams about this woman and all of a sudden…" he fell short. Ethan was glaring. Jarod stared at him. "What- What happens to her in your dreams? What happens to the woman in your dreams, Ethan?"

Ethan laughed again. It was the same, but different. Underneath. It said, you can't ask me to tell you that. It yelled, you can't ask me that. It was scared.

Jarod winced, covered up with a frown.

"They hurt her. They do- do things she doesn't want them to do."

Jarod didn't take his eyes from Ethan's. "But you don't know her name?"

"I've never met her. She's got blue eyes, dark hair. She's white- Caucasian."

Jarod frowned at the hasty correction. He didn't want to ask. Who wanted to ask something like that? But he had to, no choice. "Ethan, who hurts her?"

"I don't know," Ethan said, obviously not catching on.

"Why do you think-? Why do you think you dream about this particular… event?"

He thought Ethan might be angry. Ethan wasn't angry. He shook his head.

"Do you think it's connected? It has something to do with your Inner Sense?"

Ethan laughed, almost choked.

"That would make it real. That would make it scary. It scares you, doesn't it, Ethan? The dream scares you?"

"No," Ethan replied shortly.

Jarod frowned, concerted.

"When I wake up – that scares me!"

Jarod didn't want to ask, really didn't want to ask. "It's not Catherine?" he said, making it a question, giving Ethan a way out.

Ethan looked at him. "It's not Catherine," he said.

Jarod nodded once, staring down at the sketch. "Where does this come from? You said- You said it was a tattoo…"

"It's on her foot. On… top. Right one."

Jarod nodded, frowned.

"I always watch. I can't make myself not watch."

Jarod said nothing. Hopefully… just a dream.

* * *

There was nothing. A week later, there was nothing. Ethan walked for some moments. He stopped and waited for something in him to make him turn around. Nothing did. He stared at the phone booth. Did he know the number? He had to think hard. Yes, he did, he knew it.

That upset him. He knew the number. If he knew nothing else, he knew that number.

He fed in some coins, enough, he didn't count, punched in the number. It was the weekend, so he should be right.

"William Raines."

Ethan stared. Hang up, he told himself. "This is Ethan," he said coldly.

Raines said nothing.

Ethan wanted to yell at him. "Do you ever have these dreams…" He stopped. He was talking to Raines!

"I have dreams sometimes, yes."

Hang up now! "There's a woman. She has a tattoo, on her- on her right foot. Blue-blue eyes, dark hair. She's white."

"And you think… that I know this woman?"

Ethan had to fight not to snarl. "It occurred to me."

"Does she come with a name?"

Ethan scowled inwardly. "No."

"Is Jarod with you?"

This time the scowl was clearly outward.

"What does he say? I am assuming here that you… that this is connected to your Inner Sense? Would I be at all correct?"

"That is the assumption."

"You've discussed this with Jarod?"

"No," Ethan lied.

Raines sighed. "Ethan… It might be just a dream."

Ethan snorted. Didn't mean to, did anyway. "Do you know what they do to her?"

"No. You didn't say."

"I'm sure if you imagine it'll come to you," Ethan said horribly.

"That's okay."

Ethan wanted to yell. His not telling was okay? He wasn't Raines's fucking toy anymore! "Fuck you!" he yelled. His ears hurt. He stared blankly.

"Ethan, why did you ring me? That's not like you."

Ethan laughed.

"Hey. Tell me."

"I need to help her. I need to make them stop." He rubbed a hand over his eye. "She doesn't want me to help," he said finally.

"She wants them to-"

"No!" Ethan interrupted. Then, "I don't know." He hiccupped. "She doesn't want it to be me."

"You don't have to worry," Raines said after some thought.

Ethan laughed, rubbed at his eye again.

"Ethan, trust me, he wouldn't let that happen. Not again."

"You're not listening!" Ethan screamed.

"Ethan, I am listening," Raines said calmly. "It can't happen."

"Do you know, they give her drugs? I don't even know why. It's not as though she's going to get up and walk away after they-"

"Ethan-"

"YOU'RE WRONG!"

"Ethan – look – Lyle wouldn't let anyone do anything to Constance."

Ethan couldn't stop laughing.

"They're fine."

"That's her name? Constance?"

"Yes. That is her name."

"They're hurting her. They want something, and they're hurting her." Ethan forced his voice back to its usual amount of indifference. "Where are they?"

"They're working. You know I can't tell you any more."

"What if he's dead?" Ethan said suddenly with glee. He hadn't meant to.

"He's not dead," Raines said sensibly.

"You wouldn't fucking know!"

"You don't know what I would know, Ethan. And yes, I would know. I would know if one of my children was dead."

"Like you knew she was dead!"

Raines said nothing.

"Like you knew Annie was dead?" Ethan shouted.

"No! I didn't know Annie was dead! I didn't know anything."

Ethan stood there, not moving. "You're lying!"

"I'm not- I'm not lying," Raines said, just as calm as ever.

Ethan laughed, amused. "Sure, and your favorite lab experiment gave nothing away!"

"If Angelo would have been able to sense anything then he would have been able to assist Jarod in finding A- In finding Annie."

Ethan stared. "You can't lie about your own daughter!"

"I'm not lying."

"Angelo-"

Raines waited for him to finish. He didn't.

"No. How-? No."

"I don't know any more than you do."

Ethan didn't believe that. He glowered.

"Ethan…, don't glare-"

"No!"

"Ethan, I fail to see the danger- It's the Department of Agriculture," he sighed. "There is nothing-"

"Save it," Ethan said, and hung up.

* * *

"Constance."

Jarod looked up from his laptop and saw Ethan stalk into the motel room. "What?"

Ethan paced. "She works for the Center. She's been assigned Field with Lyle. I bet he sold her out, told them some lie, thinks it's all a big joke."

Jarod shook his head.

"She told me," Ethan said, annoyed, not really paying attention.

"Who-? Catherine, she told you this?"

Ethan looked at him. "They're working on something to do with the Department of Agriculture. I need you to find them."

Jarod shook his head, firm, but no longer confused. "What if it's a trap?"

"Then Parker doesn't get to shoot Lyle!"

Jarod stared. Ethan wasn't thinking.

"You're not working!" Ethan said. "Work!" He stormed to the door, pulled the door open and stomped out.

Ethan didn't wait for Jarod to tell him that it may take some time.

* * *

"You lied!" Ethan said.

Raines didn't need to ask who it was. Angry – it was Ethan. "I didn't-"

"You're doing it again!"

"Ethan, I'm not-"

"Shut up!"

"I don't know any more than you do," Raines sighed.

"You said Lyle was with her."

"He is. He was."

"Not true."

"Ethan," Raines said, finally annoyed, "that is all I know!"

"Lyle was never with her."

"Ethan!" Raines sighed heavily. "I don't know what woman you're talking about. I only told you that I did to stop you from worrying over nothing. Now will you stop?"

Ethan laughed. "I saw her!"

"Stop it!"

Ethan laughed.

"Did she have beads?" Raines asked suddenly.

Ethan shook his head.

"Sh- She would wear them on her right wrist? They're- Ah, they're wooden. They're, um, they're for protection. You might have mistaken them as Asian. They're African. Beads."

"She doesn't exist," Ethan told him.

"Does she have beads?" Raines asked again.

"It's like you said," Ethan said, laughing.

"Ethan, listen to me. They're Lyle's beads. He wouldn't have given them to anyone. There is no woman."

"You're lying. You just never stop-"

"There is no woman," Raines repeated.

"She has big eyes. I'll bet she's an alien."

"Ethan, aliens-"

"You told me they did! You told me they were real!" Ethan shouted. "No!" he screamed. "I want to talk to Raines. I want to talk to him right now!"

"Ethan-"

"I said I don't want to talk to you!"

"I say a lot of things," Raines told him firmly. "It's like you said. You were right. I lie. Of course I do. It's all just a lie. Think about it. There's nothing logical about it."

Ethan shook his head. "That's not true. Aliens are real. You said so."

"Ethan, I lied," Raines said, tired now.

"That's not true." Ethan shook his head again. "I know… aliens… are real," Ethan said seriously.

"Ethan, stop it now. You don't know. It could be a trap. Just stop. Look, why don't you tell Jarod to give me a ring and I'll explain the whole thing."

Ethan laughed. "Bullshit!"

"Ethan, I want you to stay away from Constance."

"You can't do anything."

"Ethan, stop it!"

"Make me, bitch."

"Ethan, damn it! I don't want you getting mixed up with a rival corporation."

Ethan hiccupped, amused, and giggled. He hung up. Time to find Constance.

* * *

"She's in trouble with a rival corporation."

Again, Jarod looked up.

Ethan sat down. He flung himself back on the bed and gazed up at the ceiling. "Raines is worried."

Jarod stared. "What?"

"I rung and he's worried."

"You called Raines?"

"Yes. I already said yes."

Jarod shut the laptop. "When was this?"

"Just now. Just before."

Jarod got up off the bed.

Ethan looked at him. He grinned.

Jarod's cell phone beeped. No wait, that wasn't his. "Yeah?" he answered.

"Jarod, good. You have to stop Ethan. Whatever he's doing, you have to stop him."

Jarod stared at Ethan. Didn't ask how Raines had his father's cell number. "Yeah. Thanks, dad," he said. He hung up. "Worried?" he said to Ethan.

"He's really worried," Ethan elaborated.

Jarod nodded. "Good. And what did he have to say about Constance?"

"He said I'm delusional. She doesn't exist."

Jarod remained silent. Didn't tell Ethan that he hadn't found any record of a Constance employed under Blue Cove. She might have been a loan. Blue Cove might have been collaborating. Anything might have happened.

Ethan was laughing. He didn't believe he was delusional.

Jarod's father's cell phone beeped a second time. "Yeah?"

"You know, it might be that the drugs are affecting Ethan."

"I don't know how you managed that one," Jarod laughed.

"Jarod, the drugs they're giving Constance. Ethan is pushing this and the drugs are affecting him."

"No."

"No, it is possible, see. It is very possible. Ethan has a strong connection to Miss Parker. He is capable of that. We know that."

"Yeah."

"You have to make him stop, Jarod. Do you have any music with heavy bass. That could help. And sedatives. He's going to make himself very sick. He's no use to anyone like that, let alone himself. You have to make him stop somehow. I know you care about him, Jarod. You have to do this. Ethan's confused right now. He won't do it himself."

"Ah… yeah, no."

"Jarod?"

"I'll check."

Ethan eyed him as he walked outside to the car.

"How did you get this number?"

"It doesn't matter. I got it. Watch him. Don't let him out of your sight."

"You're in no position to be telling me what to do!" Jarod said angrily.

"Would it kill you-! Hold on."

Jarod stared at the phone hard, only just realizing that Raines was ringing from a cell phone.

"William Raines," Raines answered on his landline. "No, calm down. Are you calm? Take some breaths." He laughed. "Yeah, exactly like Sydney." He waited, presumably for the breath taking. "Do you feel better? Okay, so not so much. Tell me what's wrong. No, not ramble. Tell me. Take your time. I'm never going to understand you at that speed. Okay. You're doing good."

Jarod frowned, listening hard. Someone was freaking out big time. He prayed it wasn't Ethan, pulled the car door and managed a quick peek. Ethan was lying on the bed, gazing up at the ceiling, Jarod supposed.

"You did the right thing. Take him down to SL-24. Uh-huh, just watch him. I will. I'll be there. No, I said I will be there. Remember, calm. No, don't wait for me, take him down there now if you can. Be good."

Jarod heard a faint sound which might have indicated Raines had finished with his other call. Jarod prayed he wasn't tracing this call. That would suck enormously.

Raines sighed. "I am not having good thoughts."

Jarod snorted.

"Oh ha! Can you still see Ethan?"

Jarod looked, annoyed. He swore. No Ethan. "Shit!" He hung up. And ran. He had been there, he had seen him, just a moment ago.

* * *

This one would do, Ethan decided. He knew how to get into this one. Knew how to hotwire it too.

He put the car into gear and backed out of the parking lot. No Jarod. Hmm. Worried. Nah, he was good.

* * *

Kyle held his head. That sucked. It hurt. He frowned. Oh yeah. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. He frowned. No, that was definitely not right.

He jammed his eyes shut.

Oww! He needed to be sitting up. He sat. Oww!

He laughed. It wasn't funny. Go figure! It was just like him to laugh at something that wasn't fun- Oww! "Bitch!"

It didn't come out right.

He lurched forward off the slab headed for the floor, grabbed the nearest object, grabbed anything, and stood. Head still hurt.

Visual sweep. He looked again. Was that just a dead body? He stepped away, unsteadily. That was.

The door read EUGROM. Kyle couldn't make it out. The doors swung shut behind him. He refrained from squealing. So that explained the dead body and all of those metal drawers. He shivered. Eww!

He stuck to the wall. It sucked, but without the wall he was going to fall over. He prayed the wall didn't suddenly decide it was having a No-Kyle day. But wait! Walls didn't do that. His head was still all over the place. Well not that all over the place, but all over the place.

* * *

He paused. Footsteps. Didn't like it. The footsteps were louder.

An old man appeared at the corner. Kyle thought that he vaguely recognized him. Sneaky, that, he thought.

The old man paused, considered Kyle, thought to frown, and stepped a little closer.

Kyle grinned. Bet he didn't see too many zombies, his line of work. Still familiar. Oh sheeeeep! God, he hated sheep! What did they do, like, eat stuff!

The old man peered down the corridor. Kyle guessed he was thinking that whoever he had been looking for was not down there.

He turned his attention back to Kyle.

Eep, Kyle thought. And then, what?

The old man was watching him. It kind of gave him the creeps. He should smack him out, he realized. Oh crap, why wasn't he smacking him already? He told himself to be calm. It was like Melinda said. When a person died they were free from the problems of that old life, kind of thing. He moaned inwardly, wished Melinda were here.

"Come with me," the old man said.

Kyle frowned, did as he was told.

* * *

The grubby – grey, brown – blonde looked around when she heard the sound of someone approaching.

But no, Kyle thought dramatically, not someone, some… people… Rather anticlimactic, really.

"I've-" The woman eyed him, didn't know him, a frown, but largely dismissive. "Sedated him temporarily," the woman went on.

The old man nodded.

"Who's he?" the woman asked.

"Kyle."

The woman thought, came to a conclusion at which her eyes did something funny, and she put an extra pace's distance between the two of them.

"He's quite well," the old man said, noting this.

Kyle laughed. Well! He was dead! Walking!

He old man regarded the woman.

The woman turned her lizard eyes upon Kyle once more.

* * *

Kyle didn't barge into the room as Kyle was prone to do. No, he was still holding onto the wall, and hoped no one thought to shut the door and cleverly jammed his fingers in the thing whilst they were having a go of it.

He gaped at the sedated persons, mentally in any case. "What did you do?" he yelled. Again, it didn't come out like any yell.

The woman turned, eyed him.

"She did the best thing she could do at the time," the old man assured him.

N- Argh! Kyle moved away from the wall, toward the middle of the room, toward the unconscious child, seven or eight. Disorientated, he did not however fall. "Shit."

The old man did not reply.

Lizard eyes couldn't take her eyes off him. Kyle told himself she probably wasn't checking him out and it was best not to get his hopes up.

Kyle drew himself up as best he could. The lizard eyes narrowed, and then something came on in them, and Kyle knew that she had finally clued on. It had not been the old man who had healed him.

* * *

A sharp ringing raced around the room.

Kyle wanted to hold his head. He didn't make any sudden movement in case he lost his balance.

The old man pressed a button to answer the call. "William Raines," he said.

Kyle swore nondescriptly. Damn, that was his name!

"Why would he do that?" came an angry voice.

"He is-"

"You told him to do that!" the voice accused, knowingly.

"I most certainly-"

"_What's wrong with you?_"

"I did not tell…" He fell short. "He's going to do what he thinks is best. Right now he thinks… He needs to do this. He needs to help his sister."

The voice on the other end yelled. "What have you done with her? I'll kill you!"

"This has gone quite far enough. I know you would like to stay and insult me but you need to be with Ethan, you need to go after him, and it's not safe driving and talking on a cell phone. Good day." He snapped the cell phone shut.

For once the lizard eyes were not trained on Kyle but Raines.

He looked tired.

The lizard eyed woman made a sound in her throat.

Kyle looked at her but she was not choking.

Raines walked to the door and out into the corridor.

The woman started forward, paused. Kyle watched her, standing there quite mislaid. The lizard eyes were gone, replaced. He would have said she looked sad.

* * *

The sad woman, whose name was Merchant he was duly informed, stood in front of a humming coffee machine and sipped her paper cup.

Kyle held his coffee but did not drink it. He was not sure he could. And he was sure that to try would be an altogether ill proposition. Aw Hell-

Merchant grimaced.

Not as bad as he had expected, he reasoned, aside from the fantastical amount of sugar the woman had put in the thing.

"Loony me," she said.

Kyle tried to think of something to say that might make her smile but came up blank.

* * *

"What?" Parker barked her usual response down the phone, annoyed at whoever it was who had decided it a good idea to interrupt her weekend.

"Miss Parker?" Jarod all but whined. It was more of a gasp, Parker decided.

She laughed harshly. "Who do you bloody think?"

Jarod swore. Swore again.

Parker growled. She didn't like being left out of the loop.

"You're alive?"

What, of course she was alive! "What's going on?" she growled.

"I think- I think Ethan's- He's been having these dreams- these dreams. Now he's run off to save a woman who doesn't exist and I think it's a trap."

"Fuck!"

Jarod did not pick her up on her language, instead he said, "It's Raines."

Parker swore again. "Fuck!"

* * *

"I guess we should start a club or something," Merchant joked.

Kyle glanced into her face.

"Both once dead, both alive again," she laughed.

Kyle looked at her properly, but nothing he saw rang a bell. He smiled indistinctly.

* * *

It was a day later that Ethan had crossed the Virginia border, and was a good twenty minutes gone. He stared into the darkness and could not begin to think about sleep.

Later he turned the car into a row of warehouses, all corrugated metal things. He did not know why he did this, and yet all the same, he did.

He thought about Jarod and hoped he was sleeping. He hummed as he walked on in darkness, a song for Jarod.

Something inside him pushed him forward and he ran without knowing where he was running.

He found her lying curled up in the middle of goddamn nowhere, out in the open no less. He was going to kill Lyle, he realized.

As he drew closer he realized something was wrong. This was the woman, but she was not alone.

* * *

Ethan cleaned her up in the shower as best he could. He had earlier booked a motel room for the night and it was now 2am. He much less intended to sleep. He needed answers.

Constance was barely conscious. She might have been drugged, she might not have. When he had seen her in his dreams, she had looked different; certainly no baby had been known to him that was now quite obvious, and he did not like to think that she had been drugged under the circumstance. It was entirely believable that she had been drugged, he knew, but he did not like to think it.

He thought through the shower of cold water that there seemed to have been some sort of time delay between his dreams and the timing of actual events.

Constance slept and Ethan watched her. He was sure she had not been released voluntarily and that meant that someone would be out looking for her. Ethan wasn't going to let that happen.

He could wait as long as it took for the answers.

* * *

Constance fell in and out of consciousness for odd moments. She did not speak. The moments did not last long. It was three days before she fully regained consciousness for any substantial period.

Ethan was driving.

Constance did not speak, again. She watched with bleary eyes as the world run by. Then she closed her eyes and slept again. She did not ask Ethan who he was or where they were headed.

* * *

Jarod had tracked Ethan to a house by a lake. He had read that it was actually a dam on some sign back along his travels, and thought that it was like the one in Bobby's town. What he was doing thinking about that ill-mannered town was anyone's guess.

There was a car parked around front, Jarod noted, and decided it to be a good sign. Just the one. He had parked his own car a way away and had walked.

The lake here was bigger than Bobby's, he decided duly. And then, annoyed, tried to think of something else. It was just his nervousness, making him think of irrational things. Oh, but hadn't Ethan mentioned Lyle? He thought on this a moment and decided that yes, Ethan had mentioned Lyle if memory served him correctly. He should be careful then, he thought to himself in the mean time. Sydney would tell him to be careful, and his father, Charles, would agree. His father was always telling him to be careful. Sydney, not so much.

* * *

Ethan flipped through the documents, photocopies and files he was reading impatiently. He paused, turned a page over. Then he heard the sound of Constance screaming.

* * *

Ethan had the gun trained on the intruder's head.

"Shit! It's Jarod! Ethan, it's me!"

Ethan scowled, kicked the door shut and lowered the gun.

Jarod was staring at Ethan.

"Shh, Constance."

Constance did not reply.

Ethan stalked past Jarod and that was when Jarod noticed the woman. Well, he had noticed the screaming of course, but then he had seen the gun and Ethan. She was like Ethan had said. Blue eyes, dark hair. He frowned. Okay, so Ethan hadn't mentioned _that_.

"My idiot brother," Ethan was explaining. "Jarod."

Jarod surveyed the largely empty room quickly. "I thought something had happened to you."

"I'm alive," Ethan shot, almost resentfully.

Jarod made a face, walked up to Ethan and this woman, Constance.

Ethan took her hand, placed it on Jarod's face, who jerked back, but did not step away.

"This is Jarod," Ethan said.

Constance stared at him, right at him, just a little bit off. Of course, she didn't see him.

Jarod didn't ask straight out. Ethan was giving him a look. He supposed he would tell him later. "That's right," Jarod said. "Jarod."

"Constance," Ethan said, holding her hand. "There are some things we need to ask."

Constance turned so that Ethan could see that she was facing him. It was only polite to look at people when they were talking to you.

"Constance, do you know where Lyle is now?"

She frowned. "No. I don't think that I care to know where Bobby's father is, in any case," Constance said in a child-like voice Jarod had not imagined for her.

Ethan didn't understand. "Bobby's father? Constance, I'm not sure I understand."

"I don't know."

"Constance, who is Bobby?" Ethan asked.

"A boy. An annoying boy."

"I take it by that that Bobby and yourself are hardly friends," Jarod observed.

Constance turned her face. "We were never friends. Our fathers worked together."

"Your father and Bobby's father?" Ethan asked now.

Constance frowned, turned back to face Ethan. "Yes. My father and Lyle, Bobby's father."

"Mmm," Jarod agreed. "What did Bobby's father do?"

"He was a psychiatrist. My father too."

Jarod nodded, although Constance couldn't see so. "Does Bobby have another name? A surname?"

"Yes," Constance replied. "It was… It started with a B. His name was Robert, I think. Robert B." She sighed in annoyance. "I remember that Lyle called himself Bartholomew."

"When did you first meet Bobby, Constance?" Jarod asked, giving her some time away from his earlier question.

"I was 14. He would have been about the same age, I assume. 13, 14."

"And this was?"

"He came in with Bartholo- with Lyle. Oh, they were both so terribly interested in this alien child." She laughed raucously.

"Alien?"

"He was a funny little boy. He didn't like to talk, and on the rare occasion he looked at you, that was something to be boasted. It was Bowman, I remember now. Robert Bowman."

"He didn't talk to you? Why was that, you think? Was it perhaps because you were a girl?"

Constance laughed shortly. "He didn't like to talk to anyone really. They told me that he was diagnosed as autistic. Of course, I never believed a word of it."

"You didn't believe what they said about Bobby?"

"Of course not. It was all an elaborate front. Bobby was one of their gifted children. A distasteful sort of collection Lyle had the extremely ill taste of addressing as a program. Ha!"

"Program?"

"For research purposes. The betterment of mankind. Onward and outward. At its heart beats the interest of our great nation." She announced all this with an ill sort of bravado.

"There were other children?"

"Yes. Were, are. The greatest attribute of the human species is their fantastic ability to manipulate one another to any means." She smiled. "Of course, they will tell you that our greatest attribute is imagination, or love."

"I have heard it said," Jarod agreed.

"Bobby was a problem. The gifted ones, it was… The safest description, I think, would be a medium of sorts. Yes, a medium."

"Bobby was a medium too?"

Constance smiled. "Bobby was different. He was very special. He was the prize of their collection, you see."

"But you had your skepticism?"

"He was very special. It made me sick the way Lyle looked at that boy."

"Can you tell us who it is your father worked for?"

"Father?" Constance said. "A good man, my father! He works for the government."

Jarod remained quiet for some moments. "Constance, did you ever meet Bobby again?" he asked.

"No. He was no longer with the program when I returned from university."

"University. That's quite an achievement. What was it that you studied?" Jarod was forcing his mind away from those words. _He works for the government._

"I became a nurse."

"How did you come to work for the Center?"

Constance frowned.

Jarod rephrased. "A nurse. Nurses are good people. What did you do after that? I bet I know the hospital you worked at."

"I returned home. I never worked for a hospital."

"You worked for the government?"

"For a time, I did."

"But that didn't work out?" Jarod said.

"I imagine that Father was quite mad when I, for lack of a better word, broke out three of his pet possessions." She stared blankly over Jarod's shoulder.

"I can imagine," Jarod agreed.

Constance shifted her gaze. Though she could not see him he swore she stared him right in the eye. "What is this Center of which I am purportedly in the employ? It all sounds rather ominous."

Jarod laughed. "The Center acquire gifted children also."

Constance smiled. "I'll bet they do." She nodded. "The Center. I thought that I had recognized this name. Lyle was no friend of this Center, I can tell you. I suppose he thought them ill-mannered and clumsy, and himself terribly smart." She snorted. "Terribly smart, that one!"

"The government is aware of the Center?" Jarod asked.

"Certain branches of the government, I daresay, are in varying capacities very much aware."

Jarod frowned.

"I suppose he was a hybrid," she said suddenly.

"I'm sorry," Jarod said.

"Bobby. A hybrid. He looked human enough to me."

"Hmm."

"It was the drugs," she said.

"I'm sorry? Again."

"Why I can't see you."

Jarod nodded, shook his head. "Oh." He frowned. "Was it your Father who did this to you?"

Constance laughed. "Yes," she said calmly.

"Do you know why?"

"I do, yes."

"Would you be willing to share with us?"

"Why not! Father thinks that I would be a good contributor for a shiny new medium child."

Jarod looked at her properly and saw nothing extraordinary. "Genetically?"

"Yes."

"But you're not gifted?"

Constance frowned, pouting. That was right. "No," she said, completely honest.

Jarod chased an idea around in his head. Perhaps the truth had simply never been revealed to her. "Would it be alright for me to take a sample of your blood?"

Constance now looked across at Ethan although he had not spoken.

"We want to be sure you are healthy, and in turn your baby."

Constance frowned again. "If it must be done."

"It would make me feel much better."

Constance smiled uncomfortably.

* * *

Jarod had made up his mind. Tomorrow he would go in search of a laboratory capable of running Constance's DNA and hopefully he would be able to lay to rest whether or not Constance did indeed posses the anomaly Ethan and himself also possessed. He peered into Ethan's face. "Do you trust her?"

"She's been through a lot."

Jarod laughed shortly.

Ethan shot him a sharp look.

"At the strike of midnight it will all become clear," Jarod joked.

Ethan walked out of the kitchen.

* * *

Jarod rang Parker later. As was custom, he waited until 4am. He told her that Ethan and he had caught up, Ethan was alive, hung up.

* * *

He squinted at the results, recognizing the sequence immediately. There was no need for further tests, he safely assumed. Then he thought of Ethan, alone with that woman. Who had lied.

He ran. He had to hurry.

* * *

He heard the distant floundering sounds of what he assumed an old jazz record from presumably an upstairs room. He stepped cautiously to the stairwell and took the stairs, gun out in front of him, listening carefully not to make any sound to announce his presence.

He moved swiftly along the passage until he came to a room to which the door was open, the room from which the music was coming, he was sure.

Jarod all but threw himself into the room, gun in hand. He searched the room, but there was no one. He glanced at the flat black bakelite recording, spinning in circles, as though a funny sort of wobbling unidentified flying object.

"What are you doing?"

Jarod spun to.

Ethan stood in the doorway, frowning.

Jarod put his gun away.

Ethan watched him do this, disapproving.

Jarod hastily produced the relevant documents and pushed them into Ethan's hands.

Ethan stared down at the print out, uncomprehending.

"Do you suppose there's a sensible reason why this woman might as well be Parker's clone?" he shot angrily and nodded to the sheet Ethan held.

Ethan looked up into his face.

"I would never have believed it possible if I had not taken her blood myself! I would have said it was lies!"

"What are you saying?" Ethan asked.

Jarod laughed. "You're really taken. You never even saw it coming."

Ethan glowered.

"Where is she?" Jarod demanded.

"I don't know," Ethan said, without emotion.

Jarod frowned, displeased. He stepped out into the passage without a word.

* * *

Ethan followed behind Jarod. Jarod thought that he was worried that he would harm the woman. Ethan should have known better, Jarod thought, should have known that he would wait until after the baby was born.

* * *

Ethan shouted. "Constance!"

Constance paused.

Jarod ran toward the lake, Ethan behind him.

Constance turned and Ethan saw the tears coming down her face. She stared blankly at nothing and stepped backward off the end of the pier.

"Constance, no!" Ethan screamed. He raced along the pier and Jarod had to seize him around the middle to stop him from jumping in after Constance.

Ethan struggled angrily, but mostly distraught, but Jarod was bigger.

Jarod peered into the dark water and saw only more dark water.

"Let me go!" Ethan growled.

Jarod released him. Constance had come here of her own device, and she had too decided to end it of her own device. Nobody had done it for her.

Jarod was dragged from these thoughts at the sound of choking and water.

* * *

Constance sat sobbing and shaking.

Jarod was almost disappointed. Ethan was not shouting, Jarod noted. Jarod looked across to the woman and thought with disgust that she had been willing to kill herself and her baby. He thought that it would suit him just fine if he never heard her voice again. She made him sick.

Ethan did not put his arms around her.

Jarod watched her with clear satisfaction. She was pathetic. She deserved no less.

* * *

"Why?" Ethan asked, his voice blank.

"I had to know," Constance blubbered almost incomprehensibly.

Jarod cleared his gaze and focused his eyes on the pathetic woman before him.

Ethan laughed humorlessly. "What's that?" he demanded sharply, unfeeling. Ethan laughed. "No, I didn't think so!" he surmised harshly, amused, with tacit knowledge.

* * *

Constance stood efficiently.

Jarod matched her movement.

Constance's gaze flew to his. She smiled knowingly. "I suppose you mean to shoot me, Jarod?" she deduced. She pouted, turned a puppy look on him.

Ethan got to his feet now too.

Constance did not so much as glance in his direction. "No."

Ethan frowned, angry now. He laughed. "You had me!" he admitted, not a bit admiringly.

Constance gave no indication that she had heard him, her gaze fixed on Jarod.

Ethan laughed again. "It must have been something."

Constance turned her head now, annoyed, her expression disapproving.

Ethan grinned. "We figured you out," he told her. "Time's up!"

Jarod stepped forward quickly to take her arms as Ethan produced a syringe.

* * *

"Drop it!" Constance shouted, Jarod's gun trained levelly with Ethan's head, her hands not a bit shaky.

Ethan shrugged, let the syringe fall from his fingers. It rolled away, stopped just inside of his periphery vision. Ethan laughed shortly, as though to say ha. He held up his hands. She'd sure had him fooled!

Constance flew backward and fell. Ethan barely had time to register the sound of a gunshot before he saw Parker, her gun now aimed to take out Constance's heart.

Jarod seemed to materialize behind Parker.

Ethan blinked and the haze in his head cleared.

Jarod touched Parker's arm.

Parker did not lower her gun, but the gleam in her eyes shifted and Ethan knew that she would not kill Constance today. She was thinking of the child, he knew.

Jarod stood with his own gun, retrieved from the floor where Constance had dropped it when Parker had shot her in the shoulder, pointed at the woman's head. She wasn't going to try anything.

Ethan swiped his palm out across the floorboards and scooped the syringe up into his fingers. He lurched forward and jammed the tranquilizer into the side of her neck.

Parker seized Ethan angrily, Ethan smiling with satisfaction. "Did I say-!" Parker barked. She did not finish.

Constance's eyes turned and she convulsed.

* * *

Anaphylactic shock, the doctor's were calling it. They had managed to stabilize the patient and the unborn was of a similar condition. They would know more when they conducted testing and the results came in.

Jarod listened intently as he was prone, studious and serious.

Parker's brain hurt and she was tired and worried about the baby.

Ethan did not speak, did not move.

* * *

Parker blew on her coffee absently. She had taken a Valium and had amazingly slept most of the night. She watched Jarod over her coffee. He was thinking. The corner of her eye caught a familiar movement and she directed her eyes in a sideways glance.

Ethan wordlessly took a seat beside her. He was glaring at a string of beads he was wearing on his left wrist.

Ethan caught her watching and glowered.

* * *

Kyle glanced up from the paperback he was reading. Raines sat down opposite and took up his hand. Kyle grinned. He turned the book around. He had just been reading a section about Healers. He knew what it was.

"Look after them, won't you?" Raines said. He stared off into nothingness for a moment.

Merchant appeared in the door.

"I know what it is," Kyle told her.

Hurrying up to him, she snatched the book away with a reproving glare. This was hers. She had not given him permission to read it.

"It's supposed to happen," Kyle went on.

Merchant said nothing.

Kyle looked around because Raines had dropped his hand. "It's supposed to happen," Kyle repeated.

"You shouldn't believe what you read in books," Merchant told him in an empty voice.

* * *

Kyle caught her up in the corridor and grabbed her arm to stop her charging off like that.

She turned and looked at him with the most horrible expression he thought he had ever seen on her.

"Zombies united," he said.

Merchant glared.

Kyle smiled a small amount.

"I can't trust him," she said abruptly.

Kyle's smile turned to a frown. He wanted to say that he had never trusted him, but he couldn't say that to her now.

"He might do something stupid."

"How do we fix it?" Kyle asked.

Merchant leapt forward and dropped her head onto his shoulder.

Kyle frowned, feeling awkward. A noise distracted him. He listened hard.

Merchant lifted her face from his shoulder. She had heard it to. The missing piece fell into place and she hid her face once more in Kyle's shoulder. She did not want to see that. She did not want to hear that.

Kyle held her a little tighter.

* * *

Kyle walked to the door, Merchant still huddled in his arms and her face hidden away. He gawped at the shaking thing.

It was mid to late teens, Kyle decided, frowned at all of that yucky glutinous clear jelly that would be all over it.

He knew what that was. He knew who that had been.

Merchant made a sound. She wanted him to move.

He stood transfixed even as he heard the sound of approaching footsteps. He didn't turn because whoever it was rushed into the room and over to the teenager. Kyle frowned. Angelo, right. That was odd.

Merchant made herself turn.

Angelo sat there, watching the teenager with a frown.

Merchant saw that it was breathing, and that meant alive. She hurried to Angelo's side. "Leave it," she said, taking his hand.

Angelo glared.

Kyle came up behind the two. That was creepy awesome!

Angelo blinked.

Kyle ruffled his hair absently.

There was a yell from the door.

Angelo shot up.

Sam grabbed him. "You alright?" he asked.

Kyle stared when there was no yelling.

Angelo nodded. He was alright. He turned his head, dropped his eyes to the floor.

Sam scowled disapprovingly. What were they all just doing standing there?

"Sam – no!" Merchant started to say.

Sam ignored her and lifted the boy up.

Merchant's shoulders fell. She hurried after Sam. "Best not to argue," she said to Kyle.

Kyle stepped forward, after her, and then frowned, realizing he was waiting for Angelo.

Angelo had on a very uncomfortable expression.

"You really alright?" Kyle asked. Angelo was an Empath.

Angelo stomped on the spot. "Angelo want Lyle!" he whined.

Kyle stared. "I'll be your friend," he said, stupidly bright.

Angelo hugged him briefly.

* * *

The little boy made a face. He dropped his schoolbag in the door and stomped up to the sofa and flopped down beside Kyle who was reading Merchant's book again. "I missed it, didn't I?" he whined.

"It was awesome!" Kyle told him.

The child frowned.

Kyle looked around at him. "How's big brother?"

The child's frown took on a serious note. "Busy," the child said, strangely vague.

"Angelo's worrying," Kyle reported.

The child peered at him.

Kyle shrugged. "I worry when Angelo worries, kiddo," he explained fairly.

"Worrying makes you old," the child told him, and leant his head on Kyle's arm.

Kyle patted his red hair. He was a good kid. "That's all you know, huh?"

The child nodded against his arm.

Kyle sprung to his feet. "Let's go see if we can sneak in there and touch it!" he enthused childishly.

The child grinned.

* * *

"You've reached William Raines," a recorded message informed Ethan. "Leave a message after the… you know what."

Ethan snickered. Stupid answering machines! He frowned, twisted the beads on his wrist. He hung up.

* * *

"Nasty allergy you've got there," Parker breathed, eyes glued to Constance in distrust.

Constance turned her head and lifted her hand to reach for Parker's hand.

Parker looked at the woman in distaste.

Constance removed her hand from Parker's leg and tried again.

Parker lifted her hand up out of Constance's reach, confused. She didn't think it would work twice. Jarod had told her about Constance's clever little scam.

Constance gave up and dropped her hand back onto the bed.

"It won't work," Parker told her coldly.

Constance didn't reply.

Parker noted a presence in the doorway. As soon as Ethan saw that Constance was awake he stalked into the room. Parker could tell he was still very angry.

"I need them," Constance said, pushing her hands out in front of her.

Ethan glowered at her as though he would like nothing more than to see her catch fire. He didn't budge.

Parker looked at him, enquiring.

Ethan touched the beads on his wrist.

Constance squeezed her hands closed and opened them again.

"I don't know what you mean," Ethan said coldly.

Parker frowned at the beads.

"Give them to me, please," Constance whined.

Parker turned so that she was half facing Ethan.

Ethan ignored her. "I don't know what you mean," Ethan repeated to Constance.

Parker watched Ethan carefully, noting the small almost indiscernible smile there.

Ethan turned on his heel and walked to the door. He left without saying a word.

Parker hurried out after him.

* * *

"Ethan, what was that about?" Parker demanded.

Ethan met her gaze with a hard stare.

"Ethan, I want an explanation!" Parker told firmly, and didn't slap him.

Ethan laughed shortly. "She stole them. They're not hers."

"They're yours?" Parker said, disbelieving.

"They're my brother's!" Ethan growled.

"Which brother would that be?" Parker asked, incredulous.

"Lyle," Ethan replied, glowering. He stepped backward sharply. "I'm looking after them for him!"

"Ethan!" Parker yelled. She took a breath before she hit him. "You are not looking after anything of Lyle's!"

"I'm not giving them to you so you can give them to her," Ethan told her with narrowed eyes.

Parker leapt forward.

* * *

Jarod got in between them. Parker turned murderous eyes on him.

Ethan glowered and smiled.

Parker growled.

Jarod frowned, annoyed. "What's going on?" he said.

Parker turned menacingly. "We're all right here, officer!" she chimed sickly.

Jarod looked slightly irritated now.

Ethan stalked away.

* * *

"Where's Lyle?" Parker demanded angrily.

Jarod looked at her.

Constance pretended as though she hadn't heard.

"Where's Lyle?" Parker repeated, her patience thin.

"I don't know who you're talking about," Constance said.

Parker laughed, not amused. Her patience snapped. "Get the doctor. We're taking you home! Then I think we'll cut that thing out of you and leave you to die."

Jarod gaped.

Parker strode to the door. She meant it. "Doctor?" she called loudly, and when she had obtained his attention lowered her voice. "Excuse me? Doctor?"

* * *

Nobody spoke on the drive back to the lake. Parker had meant it, and she had charmed the doctor suitably into releasing Constance into her care.

Ethan sat expressionless and imagined the cutting Jarod had told him Parker had promised the woman.

* * *

"Where is he?" Parker said slowly. Last chance.

Constance looked at her, blinked. "Here," she said, as though stating the only logical conclusion.

Parker growled. Jarod had swept the place! There was no one home! She laughed.

Ethan watched the gleam as it slid along the blade in his sister's hand.

Jarod tried urgently to meet Parker's eyes.

Parker put the knife away.

Ethan frowned.

"Something blunt, I think," Parker said, as though choosing clothes in a boutique.

"Do you think I would lie about that?" Constance shouted angrily, her eyes narrowed meanly.

Parker paused. "You wouldn't know how to tell the truth!" Parker spat.

Ethan stepped forward suddenly. "She killed him!" he said, and smiled breathlessly.

Parker grabbed his arm and yanked him back. "Don't talk to her!"

Ethan laughed.

"Where?" Parker demanded roughly, her eyes wide.

Constance smiled. She started to hum.

Ninety-nine red balloons formed and took shape in Parker's mind.

"Brother?" Constance called lightly. She giggled. "A visitor for you, brother."

Parker stared and realized for the first time that the woman was a lunatic.

Constance made an amused sound without any air and ducked her head a little, watching Parker. She giggled brightly. "Brother's here!" she chimed.

* * *

Constance didn't take her eyes off Parker's. "Ta-da!" She frowned in a vaguely worried sort of way. "Miss me, big sis?"

Parker didn't move from where she was standing.

Constance's gaze darted to Ethan, bored with Parker. "I want my beads!" Constance demanded, and then smiled pleasantly.

Ethan laughed. "I want my brother!" he growled back.

"Next please!" Constance chimed and spotted Jarod. "Hi," she said with big eyes and a little bit of a delighted smile.

Jarod glared, uncomfortable.

Constance pouted and returned her attention to Parker. "Make Ethan give me those beads or you're never having this _baby_!" she said, and giggled.

"You can't do anything!" Parker growled.

Constance frowned, hurt. She laughed. "Oops," she said, producing the empty syringe Ethan must have left lying on the floor, her hands free. "Needle!" She dropped her eyes to her stomach, titled her head to the side. "Baby!" she cooed.

"Drop it!" Parker shouted, pulling her gun.

Constance squealed, fake scared, and burst into a peel of laughter. "What are you gonna do? _Shoot me?_" She dropped the smile, suddenly serious. "Shoot me! Shoot her! Shoot the baby!" Constance pointed out.

"Why are you doing this?" Parker demanded.

"I'm misunderstood!" Constance declared, frowning halfway through.

* * *

Constance's eyes shifted.

Ethan stood perfectly still, holding out his hand, and there between his fingers, the beads.

Constance reached out with her syringe-free hand and took the beads. "Thank you, Ethan," she said in a breath. And with her other hand, offered Ethan the syringe.

Ethan took the syringe carefully.

Parker kept her gun levelly on Constance. She moved swiftly and knocked the woman out.


End file.
